Tips for fat loss diet beyond basic calories

5-8%advantage

5-8%advantage

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Asking for myself and my wife.
We are certainly well versed enough in nutrition and diet to understand the basics, HOWEVER…..we still struggle to push beyond fat loss plateaus from time to time.
When specifically focused on dropping BF%, what would everyone recommend beyond the following:

- focus on 1g/LB lean body mass
- 200-400 caloric deficit
- focus on whole natural foods after ensuring protein target is hit by whole natural foods with shakes ONLY when needed to hit targets.
- minimizing highly processed foods to less than 3 meals per week.

I know there’s a bio-individuality to everyone, and I also believe digestion is almost if not more important than total calories, but are there any opinions on macro ratios when specifically focused on dropping BF%?

I personally could use more cardio in my life but my wife has extremely appropriate workouts for her goals….

As per the point of the thread, hopefully this can start a good conversation around diet when focused on dropping BF% with an emphasis on macros ratios.
 
Calories will change every week. Watch the scale weigh every morning after urination is how I do it. Figure weekly average and shoot for 1-2% per week, less and you're probably eating too much more and you're not eating enough. Hard to fail this way. Bulking is the same but reverse.
 
I'll be really interested if anyone posts something worthy of the effort beyond almost passive effort things. For the most part I'm of the opinion that beyond a slight calorie deficit and ensure the protein macro is very well respected there is not much that's going to blow your mind unless you have some sort of medical deficiency to correct. Those can be super important of course, often a needle in a haystack tho.

"- focus on 1g/LB lean body mass" Assume you mean Protein here, I'd go a touch higher 1.2 at least, up to 1.5 or 40%minimum of total cals but more like 50% on a cut. Whatever the highest number is that you can handle of all those scenarios. There are precious few good arguements against that IMO, your personal experience after running that for a few weeks at least should reveal them if valid.

Maintaining muscle mass while you drop BF is of the highest priority IMO while cutting and is my reasoning behind theses statements. A constant positive nitrogen balance is what I seek.
There is something called a PSMF - Protein Sparing Modified Fast, you may wish to look into that. Google provide a good write up or two on them. Even if you didn't want to try it the concepts such a write-up would explain the mechanisms I mention above much more technically.

"- focus on whole natural foods after ensuring protein target is hit by whole natural foods with shakes ONLY when needed to hit targets.
- minimizing highly processed foods to less than 3 meals per week."
These two need to be balanced out with what your priorities really are IMO. I'll eat shakes and processed foods all day and night if it serves my fatloss/tissue retention goals and I'm willing to take the negs it brings to things like general health, feeling well etc.

One almost completely passive thing you can do is eat all your protein in each meal first before anything else even touches your lips then give it 15 minutes plus before eating your carbs or fats. Another is to not consume carbs AND fats at the same meal. Why? The first thing that hits your guts will literally get the (appropriate) juices flowing and contribute to the best digestion of that macro. Let that prime rib simmer in the good shit all by itself for a while. I don't have a paper or anything to back that up, just the opinion I've formed from taking in various info over the years.

So lets say I'm right. How much is that helping? Probably a very small amount but the effort is damn near zero, so that small amount is all but free.
 
gondar1 said:
I'll be really interested if anyone posts something worthy of the effort beyond almost passive effort things. For the most part I'm of the opinion that beyond a slight calorie deficit and ensure the protein macro is very well respected there is not much that's going to blow your mind unless you have some sort of medical deficiency to correct. Those can be super important of course, often a needle in a haystack tho.

"- focus on 1g/LB lean body mass" Assume you mean Protein here, I'd go a touch higher 1.2 at least, up to 1.5 or 40%minimum of total cals but more like 50% on a cut. Whatever the highest number is that you can handle of all those scenarios. There are precious few good arguements against that IMO, your personal experience after running that for a few weeks at least should reveal them if valid.

Maintaining muscle mass while you drop BF is of the highest priority IMO while cutting and is my reasoning behind theses statements. A constant positive nitrogen balance is what I seek.
There is something called a PSMF - Protein Sparing Modified Fast, you may wish to look into that. Google provide a good write up or two on them. Even if you didn't want to try it the concepts such a write-up would explain the mechanisms I mention above much more technically.

"- focus on whole natural foods after ensuring protein target is hit by whole natural foods with shakes ONLY when needed to hit targets.
- minimizing highly processed foods to less than 3 meals per week."
These two need to be balanced out with what your priorities really are IMO. I'll eat shakes and processed foods all day and night if it serves my fatloss/tissue retention goals and I'm willing to take the negs it brings to things like general health, feeling well etc.

One almost completely passive thing you can do is eat all your protein in each meal first before anything else even touches your lips then give it 15 minutes plus before eating your carbs or fats. Another is to not consume carbs AND fats at the same meal. Why? The first thing that hits your guts will literally get the (appropriate) juices flowing and contribute to the best digestion of that macro. Let that prime rib simmer in the good shit all by itself for a while. I don't have a paper or anything to back that up, just the opinion I've formed from taking in various info over the years.

So lets say I'm right. How much is that helping? Probably a very small amount but the effort is damn near zero, so that small amount is all but free.
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I’d say that’s some
Pretty well grounded and logical advice man.
Thanks very much, I think this is the kind of ‘non-fad’ ‘hard-truth’ BASIC stuff that diet and nutrition should be based around.
I love all your points.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about calories as much as the types of food youre eating. Keep the protein high 1.2-1.5g/lb and use primarily monounsaturated, polyunsaturated fats like avocado, macadamia or my current favorite olive oil.

When in doubt, keto with at least 1.5g/lb of protein(i cant stress enough how important having a lot higher than most people eat regarding protein here), 0.5g/lb of fat primarily from the sources above. Meaning your meat sources are super lean, albeit you'll want to have some saturated fat from foods like whole eggs or even a bit of steak. Believe it or not, depending how lean you are, no cheat meals or refeeds on this kind of diet, it actually slows down the metabolism and therefore progress.

Throw some cardio in, and you're off to the races. It's not glamourous but it works.
 
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This is week 7 of a carb cycle protocol from the forum posted by @gondar1. Using 70-120-200. I dont worry about weight at all. I just go by how I feel and how my clothes fit. I do weigh in once in a while but my weight can really fluctuate so much in week it just does not help much. Except to discourage mostly!

I agree I use 1-1.5 protein per pound of bodyweight roughly. I drink 4+ litres of water a day. I rarely eat sugar, do not drink at all. So my food choices are healthy and structured. I also as you suggest in your post use a 300-400 calorie deficit. I get my protein from natural sources and use Protein drinks sparingly.

My protein is generally 1/2 my calories. Fat and Carbs are 50-50 split of one or the other depending on the day. I train on the higher carb days. Post workout 20 minutes HIIT on my Lifecyle. Its slow. I am slow to grow or lose fat no matter what I do. I learn to work in the parameters.

My shirts are tighter in the chest and shoulders. Dropped 3 notches on my belt.

I dont know if this helps. I hope so.

Cheers!@!
 
I had no idea body fat was expelled through the lungs! Just started going to a new gym with steam room they are deadly after training love that shit it can be torturous though!
 
Kevinbigdiesel said:
I had no idea body fat was expelled through the lungs! Just started going to a new gym with steam room they are deadly after training love that shit it can be torturous though!
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There was an article recently, can’t remember the publication but it was a major one…..talked about the ‘fat/CO2’ relationship with respiration…..
I’ll see if I can find it
 
Eat most of your carbs in your pre and post workout meals. If you have basic nutrition knowledge you should have an idea of how much carbs you eat per day and eat most of that around your workout. You'll have a better workout which should translate into more calories burned and better recovery to maintain most of your muscle mass.
As others have pointed out, your need more protein.
Try conditionning instead of cardio. I love heavy sled push/pull. Vary the pull element so that you work different muscles aswell. Try heavy carries if you haven't. A couple of rounds of 200# sand bag carries are brutal.
I might get shit for this but fuck it, I also do some crossfit WODs which leave me drained.
You could also try fasted training forst thing in the morning for a week or two to see if you could break that plateau.
Stay away from stupid fads like butter in your coffe and MCT oil added to anything. It won't do shit except add calories.
 
For me, i do better when its either on or off diet. No small deficits or slight adjustments.
I go from my regular maintance /slow gaining diet to a very low carb, super high protein diet. I will increase carbs on wed night post workout ("good carbs" only) and something tasty on saturday night and thats it. The rest of the time, its basically meat /whole eggs and veggies.
Cardio changes as i get deeper in a cut.
 
storman said:
For me, i do better when its either on or off diet. No small deficits or slight adjustments.
I go from my regular maintance /slow gaining diet to a very low carb, super high protein diet. I will increase carbs on wed night post workout ("good carbs" only) and something tasty on saturday night and thats it. The rest of the time, its basically meat /whole eggs and veggies.
Cardio changes as i get deeper in a cut.
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This is exactly what I do.
 
I never found the 200-400 calorie deficit diets to work for me at all, unless you're eating the same things everyday and measuring it just the possible deviations in the accuracy of the foods can probably put you over the 200-400 calorie deficit (200 calories isn't much food)

when using anabolics, in my experience, i could literally eat 1000 calories a day and maintain size, although not my strength and get very lean at the same time

from what i remember physique competitors are literally starving themselves by the end of their diet for competition, they're like 200lbs+ eating 6-8oz of chicken breast a few times a day
 
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